If they can measure a response from the driver up to 80khz then why not blow that trumpet!

I cant hear over 16khz these days , there isnt much useful above that anyway , unless you are a dog.

Any Sony fans here should look for a book called "Digital Dreams - The Work Of The Sony Design Centre" , it a great read with some fabulous photos, i was not really well versed on industrial design but this book opened my eyes to the processes and plans Sony used for all their product lines.

It's marketing, it's not about if it could play frequencies only an alien could hear but if it can do 80kHz it must sound exceptionally great at 10kHz too! That's the reason for the big numbers, for people who knows no better buys it as; must be an exceptionally good sounding headphone.

PS, I'm still curious to see PROOF of it being able to play 80kHz tones without dropping off significantly or distorting. ^^

If they can measure a response from the driver up to 80khz then why not blow that trumpet!

I cant hear over 16khz these days , there isnt much useful above that anyway , unless you are a dog.

Any Sony fans here should look for a book called "Digital Dreams - The Work Of The Sony Design Centre" , it a great read with some fabulous photos, i was not really well versed on industrial design but this book opened my eyes to the processes and plans Sony used for all their product lines.

The thing is, dogs can only hear up to 60 KHz. I mean seriously, there's absolutely no point to that.

I read most dog whistles operate in the 25kHz-44kHz range...approximately. Most people only hear upto 20kHz.

You know those annoying ringing machines that people hang outside their house to deter neighbors dogs, I can hear those. I HATE those things.

Considering I'm human, I'm guessing those machines work at around 25kHz. My friends can't hear them, so they must operate on the threshold between my limit and theirs.

Dogs can hear up to around 45Khz, cats to about 60kHz.

Hope that kind of puts into perspective how high 80kHz really is. I'm not even sure if a dolphin can hear that high.

Ugh, I hate those machines. I think it's actually a distortion or resonant peak I'm hearing though. Sometimes those buzzing noises are loud enough for me to actually discriminate, and I think the tones I hear are closer to the 12-15kHz range.

You see, that proves a point that the 80 khz is useful. Their marketing team not only cares about your audio bliss, but extend that love and care to your pets as well. I have seen alot headfier's avatar with dogs and cats on headphone, dogs could hear 40khz and cats at 60khz ... and rodents at 90khz. Sony's marketing team have it all covered my dear friends...

Sony's numbers are always so crazy. I'm always wondering which of the two approaches their engineers are taking:

1. "Well, we'll just say it goes up to 80khz to somehow indicate the vague audio quality of the headphone. Since no consumer has the equipment to measure these numbers, and no consumer actually cares, it'll be fine."

2. "Well, we did some measurements and the driver seems to do *something* at 80khz. We'll just slap on a frequency response of up to 80khz without specifying the +/- x db range like other manufacturers."

Or the magical but unlikely third approach:

3. "Wow, these drivers go whiz bang right up to 80khz! Too bad no other manufacturer or consumer has equipment to reproduce these results. Let's watch Akira with Tsutomu Ōhashi again."

To me this venture seems stupidly pointless. NO ONE can hear 80 KHz. It's physically impossible.

LOL it makes a good argument on YouTube videos.
Something along the lines of:
"Beats are crap, they only have a frequency range of 20Hz-20kHz. Buy Audio Technica because their frequency range is 15Hz-42kHz"
^ bigger = better